I don't consider myself a particularly big JIMI HENDRIX fan, but I must know something because this puzzle went down very, very easily. I think the most trouble I had involved figuring out whom the wind was crying. I wanted "Mariah." Why did I want "Mariah?" Ah ... this is why:

Now I don't feel so bad. It's a pretty straightforward tribute, with no whistles or bells—just symmetrical songs. But it works. And the grid is quite solid. Nice to see FOTOMAT (5D: Bygone company with yellow-roofed kiosks), about which I haven't thought for many, many years. I also like TRUTH OR DARE (which I once used in a puzzle about Norse gods) and LEGAL ACTION, which reminds me of "Damages," which I am currently watching (via Netflix) and enjoying.

Theme answers:

5A: With 67-Across, song by 56-Across ("FOXY / LADY")

19A: With 32-Across, song by 56-Across ("ALL ALONG THE / WATCHTOWER")

11D: Song by 56-Across ("FIRE")

42A: Song by 56-Across ("PURPLE HAZE)

9D: With 60-Down, song by 56-Across ("HEY / JOE")

54D: "The Wind Cries ___" (song by 56-Across) ("MARY") — odd to have just the lone partial, but really, it's not a big puzzle in a simple tribute puzzle like this.

Bullets:

64A: Pete and Julie's "Mod Squad" partner (LINC) — the show is before my time, but LINC is very identifiable to me. He had a righteous 'fro.

68A: Compound with a double-bonded carbon atom (ENOL) — a word I would never have encountered in my lifetime were it not for crosswords. It's LONE backwards. I'm sure this information will come in handy some day.

28A: Conveyance in an Ellington song (A-TRAIN) — pretty common answer, as 6-letter answers go. I know Ella's vocal version, but here's Ellington doing a gorgeous version of the instrumental.

Got FOXY right away and knew the cross-referenced part would be LADY. First name that came to mind was Eric Clapton. After running the song through my head, I realized it was JIMI.

I always thought PURPLE HAZE referred to the color of the smoke in a dimly lit room where some righteous weed was being burned, but others have told me it was the name of some acid that was popular in Frisco at the time. Anyone?

That threw me off too, but here is what Dylan himself had to say about it: In the booklet accompanying his Biograph album, Dylan said: "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way... Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."

Other than PURPLE HAZE not too familiar with JIMI HENDRIX, not a big fan. This one was a little tough for me. Thought I had finished correctly, however, after coming here, found out that I was wrong. FOlk LADY at 5 and 67A??? RR lINe at 7D, kEATS before YEATS. Close, but I have yet to ignite that cigar.

A most difficult Tuesday for this little munchkin. Tripped me up big time Mr. Collins.

While I'm sure there a many people under 30 who are familiar with Hendrix, I am not one of them. I'm pretty sure I only know of purple haze from a Bill Nye the science guy bit.

As soon as I saw the musician born 11/27/1942 I knew I was in for an old timers' puzzle and I wasn't wrong. Even "fresh" answers were clued easily for the older generation so no wonder why everyone thinks it's easy.

Not much of a Hendrix fan, but I knew of the songsbecause...well, I don't know why, but there they are, in my brain. I don't consider myself too old (my mother is his age had he lived.). I graduated from high school in 1982 and I suppose the principal was a fan as Hendrix's guitar solo of The Star Spangled Banner was played a few times a year over the PA.

Was having my usual slight annoyance at a heavily cross-referenced puzzle, but as soon as I saw it was a famous musician I knew all would be well. Got the theme at MARY.

JIMI HENDRIX died the year I was born, and I still know every one of these songs. Can't believe he would have been 70 - wow. I know from other puzzles - a Led Zeppelin one comes to mind - that many wouldn't like this theme. Sigh.

Liked TRUTH OR DARE, and LILI clued as being on a show that I loved. Really was thinking I had found a JIMI bonus answer with TACOMA, possibly his city of birth (I was close, he was born in Seattle).

My 19 year-old has a Jimi Hendrix poster in his room and several albums on his iPod - so a few under 20's would find this puzzle theme very easy.

"Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky" was instrumental in a disc design (aka "frisbee") for an ultimate team I played on in the 80's. The team name was The Happy Club. I bet @dk can figure out what we called ourselves for short.

Someone observed yesterday that the average age of the Rolling Stones is 1 year 10 months greater than the average age of the Supreme Court. I'm guessing we won't be seeing a Scalia tribute on his 70th birthday.

Finally, I'm still pondering this - I had Neil Young's Americana on in the car. It opens with Oh Susanna. The song finishes and my sons' observation/commentary is on the lack of a BANJO in the song. This is in no way the first (or even 100th) thing that occurred to me.

"All Along The Watchtower" got my goat at first -- Dylan wrote and dozens of people have covered it, but by the time I got to the end of the puzzle I was feeling a bit more magnanimous - after all, Hendrix's version of Watchtower was transformative and inspired, I think, the many others who covered the song, like Robin Trower and the Grateful Dead -- and Bob Dylan himself, who played it the Jimi way in Boston just last week.

Anyway, happy Jimi Hendrix's birthday -- I am going to Spotify that great Hendrix song "Little Wing" in tribute. And all y'all grumping about how old this music is and how you don't know it? You should know these songs just like you know Louis Armstrong and George Gershwin. Go listen.

1. This constructor is clearly a LOT older than I am. The theme should be identifiable to most people even if they weren't around, but AB FAB, LINC, FOTOMAT, INEZ, ROLLE, etc. are dating the puzzle a bit much for my (age) taste.

Acme 2: Nice citation of Dylan on Hendrix. If you haven't read "Chronicles: Volume One", I highly recommend it. Such an insightful, cognitive guy. The permanent elevation of rock---and the death knell of folk music as we knew it---was cemented when he went from acoustic to electric at Newport in 1965.

That early rock era was marked by an intriguing simultaneous alchemy of competition with mutual respect. Artists regularly met and cross-pollinated styles and songs that would erupt into new experimentation and brilliant musical offspring. Agree with GPO: To know Hendrix isn't just some vague passing tribute to another 'old guy'; it's to open one's mind to actively admire an Edison or Lindbergh in his chosen field.

I want to add that I agree with @GPO and @evil doug that JIMIHENDRIX's music is something to be studied and admired ... totally innovative at the time. Really brilliant. Especially his version of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Everybody should hear this at least once in their lifetime.

Ditto Rex. I don't consider myself a big Hendrix fan, but this did fill itself in smoothly. Being a woman of a certain age, I had no probs with ABFAB, ROLLE, FOTOMAT, LINC. I loved the radius clue for BONE.

Snow gently falling in north central CT. I think I'll take the hound for a walk in the woods later.

Got ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER early (from a few crosses), but then when Bob Dylan didn't fit in 56A, tried to make RA Zimmerman work. Alas, I'm too old for Jimi (I've spelled it Jimmy) Hendrix. 25D, 50D, 51D, and 52D saved me. Not many names end in ...DRIX.

The only JIMIHENDRIX song I remember ever hearing was something called “The Star-Spangled Banner”, which didn’t make it into Peter’s grid today but, no matter, there was no difficulty in solving this puzzle.

True to form, Peter once again goes overboard on theme related clues, as there are enough song titles and musical references to make an ASCAP royalty checker gleefully lick her lips at a potential windfall.

But, fortunately, attention was paid to the non-theme entries and two of the “L” clues are especially nice, LATENCY and LYCRA (badly wanting to be LATEX) while BEDLAM was a lively inclusion and finding the recently re-signed Big PAPI was a treat for this Red Sox fan.

We were also reminded that FOTOMAT kiosks were ubiquitous until One-Hour Photo shops drove them out of business, making them a mystery company for many younger solvers. (The same group will also likely draw a blank on the DIALO clue though the clever TRUTHORDARE should be a gimme for them).

Yesterday’s puzzle elicited praise for simplicity; leave it to Peter to give us the flip side of that record today.

I saw Jimi Hendrix in concert several times; the last time being the last performance before the Experience disbanded, which took place in Denver in 1969. However, I want to comment on "enol". Since becoming a chemist 34 years ago, I have only encountered enols outside the classroom in crossword puzzles. Enols are used to call attention to "Keto/enol tautomerism" which is an example of a compound that is in equilibrium with itself in two distinct forms, but it's not as if they're famous everyday compounds as crosswords might make one think.

Good one, Peter! Felt challenging as I was filling it in, but my time/mileage -- 9 miles, Stamford to Rye -- were right in line for an easy/medium Tuesday.

Grew up with Hendrix' music -- saw him live at the Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, NY, somewhere in the late 60s, in a purple haze, too, I can report -- so the theme answers were all gimmes. Only pause was remembering how to spell Jimi's name.

LOVE to, "Take the A Train", which is always a blast, roaring express from 125th to 59th Street.

Ah, this puzzle made me long for the good old days, when we had ILIA in our hips and moved about with ELAN. I don't always remember who did which song, so I got a lot of the songs before I got HENDRIX, so this was a medium for me - but that's my fault, not the constructor's. (I thought AB FAB was pretty well known, too.)

I've already objected to N = peacekeeping,so I won't harp on it. Aside from that, a fine puzzle. And let's have some love for ENOLs!

I am mostly innocent of knowledge of Hendrix, but all was gettable from crosses.

Seems one nit remains un-picked: Why no objections to the use of the word "operator" in the clue for 51 D? I hesitated to put in the correct answer, because it it seemed against the "No Duplication" rule.

Some folks are saying they're too old for this and some too young. For me it is directly in my sweet spot. Even the other pop culture clues seem to be written for me. AbFab, Six Feet Under, Mod Squad!Thanks Peter.Jimi's innovative style cannot be denied but I cringe when he always wins the "best guitarist on the planet" polls. So many others are so much better IMO.

p.s. When I think of a song "Fire" all I hear in my head is The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. If anyone is curious, give him a look on youTube. Now there was a strange stage show.p.p.s. Our acid wasn't Purple Haze it was Purple Barrel.

Knowing nothing about Jimi Hendrix apart from his "Star-Spangled Banner" rendition, this was WAR - had to get all the song titles from crosses. I'm not IRATE, though, realizing that this reflects a big hole in my cultural knowledge...so no TIRADE. I'll just bide my time for a theme of Verdi arias.

I like how ODIE is next to his BONE.

@chefwen - I also was stuck in that "RR" area, but guessed ALONG and that let me see X-ING and solved the YEATS/ kEATS dilemma. And...let's hope the Pack will be back!

This Collins dude must reeeeally crank out the puzs. He did the LA Times puz today, also. Plus, he turns up what seems like a couple times a month here. Probably wears black and white checked clothes. Names his kids Ilsa and Arlo. Dogs? No prob: got the first three covered with Asta, Otto, Odie. Cat? Gato. Goldfish? Cleo. Warthog? Rex.har.

Some museum near the Space Needle was having a big Hendrix display, when we passed thru Seattle a while back. Jimi played his guitar upside down, as I recall. Puz pretty much covered his most memorable songs. Cannot believe "Purple Haze" only made it up to #65 on the charts, in its day.

Fun tribute puz. Only two squares answered the call: Are U Experienced?

Having puzzles in today's LAT and NYT is merely Step One in my plan for worldwide domination. So far, so good ...

Actually I stopped by to say forget Jimi Hendrix. Happy birthday to my daughter Natalia. She turns 21 today, and last night *forced* my wife and me to meet her on campus to buy her her first (legal) drink. I tried to sell her on the idea that my birthday gift to her was the two puzzles. She ain't buying it.

A great puzzle about a great rock star. Thanks Peter (and thanks for stopping by). Perhaps a little challenging for a Tuesday (1A could have been ARAL or URAL, but ABFAB made more sense and it was vaguely familiar), but I finished without an error and only one write-over (I had PRICY before STEEP at 40A). Knowing JIMI’s songs helped a lot today as some of the fill was unknown and some I wasn’t absolutely sure of. Never heard the term HAFT (make that 2 write-overs as I put in HILT at 9A), but HEY JOE is very familiar.

I liked the clue for 66A and liked the long downs at 4D and 25D. TRUTH OR DARE will always be connected to Madonna, which is unfortunate because I don’t really like her. And we get a variation of the RCD by asking for a city some compass direction from Seattle.

Final note – I almost quit this puzzle because of all the cross-cluing, but once I figured the theme I decided to finish. Happy that I did.

Jimi trivia - He reversed the strings on a right-handed Les Paul Custom so he could play left-handed.

@Anon4:56AM – Ouch! I’m older than 30, but under 50 – I AM NOT AN OLD TIMER! (not that I’m saying 50 is the cut-off)

@Anon8:06AM – Mr. Parrothead spells his name Jimmy Buffett. The second T rules him out. He did a cover of “The Wind Cries Mary” and I would love to hear his version of Purple Haze.

Masked and Anonymo2Us, Are You Experienced? was actually a barrier-breaker of a rock album, as it was the top-selling album of the year without having anything like a hit single. This later became the norm, but previously had not been true for anyone but The Beatles with, say, Sgt. Pepper. Hendrix, in fact, never really had a song do much on the top 40 charts. He was an early example of FM replacing AM in influence.

I'm old enough to have sat in my high school cafeteria having the "Did he say 'kiss this guy?'" argument. I remember one guy saying it had to be, because, why else start with "Excuse me"?

Funny, everyone here saying they're too young to know Hendrix. My first thought when I realized he was the subject of the puzzle was "Sorry, Dad", because my 86 year old father is going to be totally lost on this one.

Put me in the @Carola camp – my process exactly – except instead of Verdi arias, I’ll bide my time for a theme of Ray Stevens hits. I still know all the words to “Hairy the Hairy Ape” and "Along Came Jones."

@anon 2:06 - “ My first thought when I realized he was the subject of the puzzle was "Sorry, Dad", because my 86 year old father is going to be totally lost on this one.” Yep. My dad, too. But he cheerfully went on the the LA Times with much more luck!

Peter – both puzzles today are well done. Good luck with your world wide domination. Happy birthday to your daughter!

To call this "easy" for a Tuesday is ridiculous. A Jimi Hendrix themed puzzle - why not? But that upper NW corner is bad xword construction - and, as the old TV cop Baretta, used to say - that's the name of that tune! The ABFAB answer alone, crossed with an obscure tv-sitcom actress is worse than hard: its just old-fasioned crosswordeese at its worst. I like the fact that Rex rates these puzzles based on his own knowledge and opinions - but this should be a Thursday, at least.

@PeterCongrats on the world domination double header today!!!!And the two puzzles combined should just about pay for that first legal drink (and maybe a round for her friends). Just.

@Sfingiyou may have missed the part that he was drunk...and he was, um, LINC. That would have been too weird, captain. No kissing on folks from my childhood TV shows, thank you. Also, no one with a III in his name. Well, maybe Thurston Howell III. Hmmm, I feel a puzzle coming on!CLARENCEWILLIAMS 16...damn!

Hard for me to believe that anyone could be unfamiliar with JIMI HENDRIX, ...but to each his own.

To all the knitpickers griping that Hendrix didn't write ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER, the clue says "Song by...", NOT "Song written by...". Since Hendrix performed and recorded that song, it's a song by him.

I am 67. I have heard of Jimi, but not of anything he recorded. Esther Rolle is a mystery, and never watched Mod Squad. I finished it without help, but also without joy. Too many clues wrapped around a single performer I neither knew nor liked, plus Ike and Tina?? made this puzzle a tedious bore. And that is my 49 across for today.

@acme - in relation to your EERIE comment in your first post today, I glanced at the syndicated puzzle in my paper today, and ABFAB (clued as '90-'00 Britcom)was the 1D answer, exactly as it was today.

This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.

All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)

From Syndiland: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! Starting in the NW I had ALL___to start the first long across, and sheepishly admit that the first song title I thought of was "ALL I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth." Actually, ALLIWANTFOR fits. Ah, but a close second was the correct answer--penned, as many have said, by Dylan but (I think most of us agree) immortalized by Hendrix.

Fond memory: My brother Dave, an aspiring guitarist then, after first hearing him went ape, but must have seen the name in print: he assigned Hispanic pronunciation rules to the first name and called him "Heemie."

Naturally, @Jack J and others have seen "Woodstock," at which Jimi made rockets glare and bombs burst with his git.

Great theme, with split titles symmetrically inserted into the grid. Long downs not too shabby either; a solid kickoff (heh heh) to the new year. WTG, PC!

Loved the puzzle, love the comments - what a great start to 2013! I guess the clue for 29d, Where sailors go, needed a ? for my first guess, "head", to be correct. Knew ABFAB only from its earlier appearance, which according to @Milford was 10 weeks ago (if I did my syndi-math right) otherwise ARAL/uRAL would have been a toss-up.

I know nothing about the star of this puzzle, so getting the song names was a real challenge. Had seXY for 5A until it had to change. 32Awas also hard. Why sing about a Mormon newsletter? And so it went. In the end, with enough crosses and good guesses, I got it all, with the final decision that LATENCY was the only fit. It gave me the song title, at long last.

In general, I dislike both cross-reference clues, and puzzles that stress knowledge of one particular area, be it songs, sea life, anatomy, or whatever. Did this one, but didn't enjoy it. Did enjoy the Rose Parade, however.

As I started this, and noticed all the cross-referenced clues, I figured I needed to work bottom up. When I got JIMI HENDRIX, I knew I was in trouble. But, persevere I did. Did not google, but frequently asked daughter, 'Did JH write such and such'?

Definitely not in my realm, at all, but I did get it all. And there was lots to love. The clue for ARSON was great, as was the clue for LYCRA. This was a fun (if difficult) solve. @Diri, hand up for head. Like the mis-direct at 66A.

Frankie Laine also had a song called 'Hey Joe', and strangely, he recorded 'They call the wind Maria'

@DMG - just noticed your WATCHTOWER reference and I love it! I've had numerous visits from representatives of the LDS (not to be confused with LSD -(PURPLE HAZE?) who wanted to leave that publication with me. I'm glad you enjoyed the parade.

Today's and yesterday's puzzles again show the solving experience is just about what you know. I'm no Hendrix fan by any stretch and thought this was a little challenging for a Tuesday, but still finished with little real difficulty, having heard most of the songs somewhere along the way. Only one I didn't know was FIRE, which like @ Two Ponies, is a title I associate with Arthur Brown (great song, too). Toughest entry for me was ABFAB, not because of the answer (I've never seen the show but heard of it plenty), but because of the clue - never ever heard of "the Beeb", except as a Justin Bieber reference.Anyway, it's interesting to see how many people thought this was hard because they're either too young or too old to know Hendrix, and the complaints about Big Papi, a gimme for me, no crosses required, while most folks thought yesterday's puzzle was a delightful breezy romp in the park. Bottom line, if you don't know rock and sports, today was tough. If you don't speak fluent French, yesterday was impossible. I'll call it even.

@ Two Ponies 11:08 AM - Holy crap! I guess it's true you learn something new every day. I took your suggestion and looked up the Arthur Brown video on YouTube. I've known the song since the 70s and even have the vinyl album on which it appeared. However, I've never actually seen him or a picture of him - there are none on the album I have. For whatever reason, I always imagined him as Black. I think it's probably the R&B sounding horn section in the background. I had no idea he was a scrawny British Alice Cooper/Iggy Pop-ish-looking dude! Not to mention the guitarist in the white hood - yikes!